New search categories

If you use “Find” on a Garmin Etrex Vista, it offers some categories like “Food”, “Shopping”, “Fuel Svc.”.

Is it possible to manipulate the mkgmap maps to get new categories here like “Bike store”?

As a cyclist I want to have a chance to search for bike stores near to me. If no new category can be generated I am thinking to change the style-files so that all bike store names start with “Bike store”.

It’s not directly possible on most models. I do remember someone posting on the mkgmap-dev list about a year ago that they were able to edit certain text files on their Garmin GPS (can’t remember which model) which allowed them to tweak the categories.

Using the style file and judicious use of Garmin type codes you can make an “Other” category appear within the existing major groupings. For instance, I have added specific Garmin type codes for amenity=restaurant & cuisine=indian. These appear as “Other” in the list of different restaurant types on my GPS. Unfortunately, if you have more than one “Other” it’s impossible to tell what each is without opening it and trying to figure out from the list of search results.

On newer Garmin such as Oregon you can edit the language file. It’s named .gtt. There you have to search for the category you want to change and rename this. If this also works on Etrex, I can’t tell you.

For my cycling maps I “recycle” the auto services category:
shop=bicycle [0x2f03 resolution 23]

Because I don’t use car dealers you can find here all the bike stores. I doubt that you can edit the category names in your Vista unless you’re a good hacker.

Where do you find this file? The sd-card in my garmin contains only the file gmapsupp.img.